De-mystifying EN 54-24:2008 and the

Construction Products Directive

Intertek
Cleeve Road, Leatherhead, Surrey KT22 7SB UK

info.uk@intertek.com 01372 370900 www.intertek.com/life-safety

 De-Mystifying the CPD and EN 54-24

Introduction to Construction Products Directive (CPD)

The CPD is a set of regulations, Directive 89/106/EEC, similar to other directives

issued by the EU for electrical safety, medical equipment, pressure and machinery
equipment, all designed to make the products arriving in any EU country safe to
use and install. The CPD has been running for several years and is now beginning
to take effect as more and more Product Standards are issued.

One of these new standards is EN 54-24:2008 which affects speakers used for
voice evacuation systems. Many fire detection and prevention products have been
subject to the CPD for years but the transition date for this new standard ends in
April 2011 at which point all speakers used in voice alarm systems will have to be
certified by a Notified Body to EN 54-24:2008.

These requirements do not apply to legacy equipment, so where already installed

those installation will not be affected.

The requirements of CE marking for Fire Detection and Prevention products are
not designed as a barrier to trade but as a way of levelling the playing fields across
Europe for all. Historically National certification marks have been requested by end
users or insurance companies to ensure a minimum level of safety is achieved via a
3rd party. However this has become restrictive as manufacturers are forced to seek
multiple certification marks to cover all EU countries. This Directive removes the
need for national marks as application of the CE mark along with a Notified Body
number will indicate compliance with relevant standards and continued auditing of
manufacturing process.

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 De-Mystifying the CPD and EN 54-24

How does the Construction Products Directive Work?

The CPD has two main parts for speaker approvals;

• Approved testing and

• Approved manufacturing control (Factory Production Control or FPC)

The first step is to make contact with a Notified Body to establish what testing is
required and to which models, as typically not all model variants require full testing
similarities can be taken into account when developing a test program but this
must be agreed up front with the Notified Body.

The testing is then performed by an approved laboratory, most Notified Bodies will
accept accredited test reports.

In parallel with the testing a Factory Production Control visit is arranged to the
manufacturing site. This is similar to ISO9000 and having ISO9000 will certainly
help with the process but the visit has to be conducted by the Notified Body or
appointed auditors, and will look in closer detail at how the product is
manufactured and quality of that process in particular is maintained. As part of
this the quality system is assessed. Notified Bodies of international test &
certification organizations such as Intertek will have auditors around the world to
enable local visits in Asia and other parts of the world.

Upon satisfactory completion of the testing, document review as well as the FPC
visit the Notified Body will issue an EC Certificate of Conformance which will
include reference to the product, manufacturer, and company placing it on the
market and the standards it is compliant with.

If the product is already in compliance with any other relevant CE marking

Directives then the CE mark including the Notified Body number can be affixed to
the product and legally sold throughout Europe.

CE Marking Requirements --- Fire detection and prevention

equipment

There are Product Standards for all types of fire detection and prevention
equipment which call-up a range of EN Test Standards to permit product to
demonstrate compliance. Below is a range of the product standards against which
compliant products can be CE marked:

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 De-Mystifying the CPD and EN 54-24

EN 54-2 Control and Indicating Equipment

EN 54-3 Sounders
EN 54-4 Power Supply equipment for CIE
EN 54-5 Heat detectors
EN 54-7 Smoke Detectors
EN 54-10 Flame detectors
EN 54-11 Manual Call Points
EN 54-12 Optical smoke detectors
EN 54-16 Voice Alarm Control and Indicating equipment
EN 54-17 Short Circuit Isolators
EN 54-18 Input/Output devices
Alarm transmission and fault warning routine
EN 54-21 equipment
EN 54-24 Components of voice alarms - Loudspeakers
EN 54-25 Components using Radio links
Fixed fire fighting systems ------ Components for
EN 12094-1 gas extinguishing systems
EN 14604 smoke alarm devices (domestic)
EN 50171 Central power supply systems

All EN 54 standards adopt the same basic structure and conditioning tests, below
we look at EN 54-24 and some of the key requirements.

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 De-Mystifying the CPD and EN 54-24

EN 54-24:2008 Components of Voice Alarms - Loudspeakers

Scope

This standard applies to loudspeakers intended to broadcast a warning of fire

detection from a fire alarm system to the occupants of a building.

This standard does not apply to active speakers at this time (addressable or with
active components) and it does not apply to fire alarm sounders that have voice
alarm.

This standard is used with EN 54-16:2008 Voice Alarm Control and Indicating
equipment.

Documentation

This part of the standard is too easily overlooked but is essential to gaining
approval and can be costly if not prepared up front.

Testing cannot commence without product installation instructions, many of the

tests require the product to be installed in typical installation and the fixings used
can affect the test results.

Parts lists, assembly drawings and enclosure drawings are also required to enable
the product being approved to be uniquely identified, there are also certain
construction requirements within the standard that require 3rd party certification
on the components.

The data sheet provided with the speaker must also be assed to ensure it includes
all required data such as frequency response for each axis, max SPL, rated
impedance, the acoustical measurement environment used for the specification
e.g. free field, half space free field or standard baffle.

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 De-Mystifying the CPD and EN 54-24

Construction

This is where the standard starts to cross over into installation requirements which
may contradict some national installation guides still in use.

There are requirements on the terminals for external conductors, they must be
clearly marked and where the cable can enter/exit the enclosure if one is provided.
They terminals must be able to take cables between 0.8mm² and 2.5mm².

Any plastic enclosures used must be of a certain flammability rating, the criteria
given is

a) EN 60695-11-10:1999 as amended by EN 60695-11-10:1999/A1:2003 Class V-

2 or HB75 for devices operating from a voltage source less than or equal to 30 V
RMS or 42.4 V DC and consuming less than 15 W of power;

b) EN 60695-11-20:1999 as amended by EN 60695-11-20:1999/A1:2003 Class

5VB for devices operating from a voltage source greater than 30 V RMS or 42.4 V
DC and consuming more than 15 W of power

This raises a question of what to do with a speaker that is 100V line powered and
consumes less than 15W. Clarification on this question is being sought from the
committee (FSH/12 in the UK) however to use best practice some flammability
rating should be used at least V-2 flammability rating material.

Enclosure protection is also required and so it must be IP21C for indoor speakers
and IP33C for outdoor speakers, although if the sample has been assessed to
higher IP levels this is acceptable.

Means must also be provided to limit access this is done by ensuring a screw or
other mechanical method is required to gain access to the controls, this is to stop
members of the public for example from turning the volume down or removing
the supply cable so using a flat screw is not suitable as this can commonly be
undone by a coin of knife, a cross crew or other special tools should be required.

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 De-Mystifying the CPD and EN 54-24

Performance Tests

The test program for EN 54 standards always starts with a performance test, in the
case of EN 54-24 seven or nine products (indoor or outdoor respectively)of the
same model are submitted and the frequency response of each one is assessed
between 100Hz and 10kHz, this frequency response is then compared to a mask
defined in the standard. An example is given below;

Example from Figure 1 of EN 54-24:2008

Example

80

70

60

50
Level (dB)

40

30

20 Frequency Response
Lower Limit
Upper Limit
10

0
k

k
6k

5k

3k

k
0

1k

2k

4k

5k

8k
25

15

10
10

12

16

20

25

31

40

50

63

80

1.

2.

6.
1.

3.

Frequency (Hz)

Example of real measurement performed in anechoic room

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 De-Mystifying the CPD and EN 54-24

The least sensitive speaker is then chosen for further acoustic tests while the
remaining samples are divided up into separate tests as shown below;

Durability where the sample is operated at its rated noise level for 100hrs
continuously. After the test the frequency response is re-measured and must still
be within the mask and not deviate by more than ±3dB from the original result.

The requirements for after the conditioning tests stated above are common for all the following
tests

Dry Heat operational and endurance, operational tests are done as it sounds with
the speaker powered and fed with an input signal during part of the test at least
the operational tests typically last 16hrs whereas the endurance tests are done
with the sample unpowered and last 21 days. This is to simulate ageing
conditioning. Temperatures can be as high as 70deg C for outdoor speakers

Cold operational, like the dry heat operational this test is over 16hrs and is done
with the sample powered and with an input signal during the last hour.
Temperatures go as low as -25 deg C for outdoor speakers

Damp heat cyclic operational and endurance is performed in a climatic chamber

that can vary the humidity and temperature at set rates over the 16hrs and 21
days required respectively. The humidity is maintained at a high level between 93-
95% while the temperature varies between 25-55 deg C

SO2 corrosion endurance is a particularly nasty test where the sample is placed in a
climatic chamber at 93% humidity with a sulphur dioxide mix over a 21 day
period.

Shock operational, is where the sample is in fixed rigid structure and the shocks
are applied to simulate typical mechanical damage that can occur in real life

Impact operation, is to simulate something banging against the speaker when

installed

Vibration operational and endurance, is where the sample is strapped to a

vibrating table and the frequency of vibration is varied in sweeps the length of the
test depends on whether the sample is operational or not

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 De-Mystifying the CPD and EN 54-24

Acoustic tests

In parallel to the ‘‘conditioning’’ tests listed above the most sensitive samples is
chosen to run through the acoustic performance tests.

The acoustic performance of the speaker is assessed for frequency response,

sensitivity, directional dependence, rated impedance, sound pressure level and
durability.

The methods described in the standard have caused some problems within the
industry including test labs across Europe. The main measurements are required to
be taken at 4m measuring distance which is a fundamental difference from EN 54-
3 which has similar measurements but at 3m. This means that the acoustic
chambers typically used to test sounders will not be able to measure speakers in
fact only a couple of chambers in the UK can come close to this measurement
technique. The committee has been asked if the limits can be scaled to take
measurements at 3m and use standard calculations to adjust for 4m but this
suggestion has been rejected. For example Intertek are currently building an
acoustic chamber with internal dimensions of 8m x 8m x 5m high and the cost is
in excess of £100,000 so quite a significant decision by the standard to go for 4m
instead of the usual 3m.

Once you have the facility and it is calibrated for free field measurements you
check the frequency response of 8 identical samples, all frequency response results
must be within the mask provided in EN 54-24 (see example earlier in paper). The
calibration of the chamber is very important as will provide a frequency dependant
correction factor that needs to be applied to the final results gathered. In addition
to this the measurement uncertainty budgets should be calculated although as the
room is being corrected for this does not form part of the budgets. Measurement
uncertainty is simply a confidence level that the result is correct within a 95%
confidence window, it is not taken into account when checking results against the
limits.

For the acoustic tests it is extremely important that the manufacturer’s installation
instructions are available as changes to the setup can cause significant changes to
the results.

Once all 8 samples have met the frequency response requirements a calculation is
performed to identify the sensitivity which is the sound pressure for 1W of power
input. To describe another way it is how well the speaker converts electrical energy
into acoustical energy (take two devices --- the one with higher sensitivity will take
less power to achieve the same volume level) , the least sensitive sample is then
labelled as sample 1 and all remaining acoustic tests are done on this model, the
other 7 (or 9 for outdoor) go off to the environmental conditioning tests and after

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 De-Mystifying the CPD and EN 54-24

this they once again need to go into the acoustic chamber and re-measure the
frequency response. All samples must still be within the mask but also the results
must not deviate by more than ±3dB which is a fairly tight requirement (sounder
are allowed 6dB variation in EN 54-3).

On the least loud sample (No1) the impedance is checked by injecting a constant
current or constant voltage over the frequency range 89Hz to 11.2kHz and the
result must not be lower than 80% of the manufacturer rated impedance.

It is also important to test the directivity of the speaker to ensure adequate

coverage is available once installed. Clause 5.4 covers horizontal and vertical
coverage angles, the speaker is mounted in its baffle at 4m distance and the
sample is rotated with the microphone in a fixed position, this is varied until the
SPL reduces by 6dB. This then gives the angle of coverage.

The Sound Pressure Level is also measured to ensure it is at least as loud as the
manufacturers specified SPL.

The speaker is also assessed for durability by running the device at the rated noise
power which is defined as rated noise voltage over the rated impedance. The
rated noise voltage is the maximum voltage specified the manufacturer which the
speaker can handle without mechanical or thermal damage. This durability test is
to run the speaker continuously at this maximum for 100hrs, after which the
frequency response is measured again to ensure no degradation has occurred.

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 De-Mystifying the CPD and EN 54-24

CE Marking & Intertek

The directive (CPD) places the responsibility for all issues to do

with approval of fire detection and prevention equipment onto
the Notified Body, this includes both the testing and
certification. Intertek will use both its own in house facilities and
those of a specifically accepted range of specialist testing
businesses or competent manufacturers, either in the EU or elsewhere in the
world, to verify the performance of products seeking the CE Certificate of
Conformity.

The CPD is only one CE marking Directive before the CE mark can be applied to a
product and it sold across Europe without restriction, it must meet all relevant new
approach directives, some examples of other directives are given below;

2004/22/EC Measuring instruments

1999/5/EC Radio Equipment and Telecommunications Terminal Equipment

and the Mutual Recognition of their Conformity

97/23/EC Pressure equipment

94/9/EC Equipment explosive atmospheres (ATEX)

89/686/EEC Personal protective equipment (PPE)

2004/108/EC Electromagnetic compatibility (EMC)

2006/95/EC Low Voltage

The next step

Call, fax or e-mail Intertek to get the expert advice on the CE requirements for
your product and the Construction Products Directive:

• Phone: +44 (0)1372 370900

• Email: info.uk@intertek.com
• Web: www.intertek-etlsemko.com

This publication is copyright Intertek and may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form in whole or in part without the
prior written permission of Intertek. While due care has been taken during the preparation of this document, Intertek
cannot be held responsible for the accuracy of the information herein or for any consequence arising from it. Clients are
encouraged to seek Intertek’s current advice on their specific needs before acting upon any of the content.

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